Zororai Nkomo
HARARE – Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba, has rubbished claims that the just-released voter’s roll is a dubious document.
Speaking to journalists in the capital, Justice Chigumba said those who were peddling malicious information about the electoral body want to cause alarm and despondency ahead of the watershed general election scheduled for next month.
“The Commission is disturbed by malicious allegations that the voters’ roll issued to stakeholders is fake. ZEC is of the view that such allegations are deliberately meant to cause alarm and despondency among the generality of the Zimbabwean populace. The public is being advised that the voters’ roll being distributed by the Commission is authentic,” said Justice Chigumba.
This followed recent concerns from opposition parties and civil society groups that the document had errors and was a mere “list of names”, lacking voters’ critical biometric data, in particular, photographs, as is required by law.
However, Justice Chigumba said the public should not be worried by the absence of photographs in the just released voter’s roll because it was meant to protect the identity of voters against fraud and identity theft. This is despite the fact that even ID numbers and Dates of Birth that are in the released voters roll can also be used in fraud and identity theft.
Meanwhile, Election Resource Network Director, Tawanda Chimhini, said his organisation has started an independent audit exercise of the voter’s roll. The intention of the audit is to provide independent information on the quality of the roll in terms of its accuracy and completeness.
This year’s election has 23 presidential candidates and 1652 National Assembly candidates.
